Nadine, netizens lead growing backlash against 'Filipino resilience'
The catchphrase “Filipino resilience” used to be a resonant battlecry for many Filipinos in the immediate recovery stage after a storm, but most have now grown weary of the much exploited term that some say has been abused as a veil to cover real underlying problems.
Celebrity actress Nadine Lustre herself put up an Instagram post expressing her disdain against the term.
"Our country has been thru so much issues (calamity, pandemic, economy, job losses) and it upsets me so much when people pull out 'Filipino Resiliency' as a quick fix," Lustre wrote alongside an abstract photo.
The actress added that the term is definitely "something to be proud of, but really, how long are we gonna keep using that to hide the real problem?"
Ronald Mendoza, dean of the Ateneo School of Government, also scored the term "resilience" in a Facebook post.
"This is not resilience. It's failure to protect our people, and forced adaptation to incompetence and ineffective governance," said Mendoza.
Sonny Africa, executive director of the non-government organization IBON Foundation, also spoke out against the term.
"So many Filipinos wouldn't be forced to be 'resilient' if social and economic policies didn't always leave them behind," Africa said.
A viral cartoon showing a dog trapped on top of a roof inundated by floodwaters also went the rounds on Facebook.
The cartoon bore the text "Nakakapagod na maging resilient." (It's already exhausting to be resilient).
Another cartoon also spoke against resilience, this time from “Forum-Dimensions,” the university student platform of West Visayas State University in Iloilo City.
The cartoon shows people sitting on a couch sipping a hot beverage while on the other end, as seen from a seeming screen with the word “Resilience” on top, people are in despair as they wade through floodwaters.
“Resiliency should not be a reminder that ‘there is more to life than suffering,’ but a wake up call for the government to strive hard and shape up in providing a community of inclusivity, full of opportunities for everyone so that nobody is left behind, and become accountable for their misplaced priorities and policies in the past because Filipinos are not sacrificial lambs,” Forum Dimension wrote in its caption.